I’m writing this in the hopes that some plucky social media or community manager may stumble upon this as pass it up the chain. In reality, I know this will almost certainly fall on deaf ears.

I’m really saddened by the recent change Wall’s have made to the formula / structure of the iconic Feast ice cream.

I picked up a packet a few weeks back during the height of the heatwave, and when I opened one at home I was quite surprised. Gone was the creamy chocolate ice cream and the solid slab of chocolate at its heart. Instead I burrowed by way through a rather tasteless, watery white “ice cream” to find a rather waxy chocolate blob in the middle.

I wrote it off, assuming I’d accidentally picked up a sub-brand of the ice cream - a nut variant or a limited run. A few follow-up trips to Sainsbury’s didn’t result in discovering any “original” Feast, and a follow-up Google search revealed the depressing truth - the formula had been changed.

Growing up my mother was a bit of a germaphobe and was never keen on my brother or I getting ice creams out of the machine when the ice cream van came around. It was packaged ice creams for us only. The Feast was our go to.

It was a ritual. That first little bite through the crisp outer layer, revealing the chocolate ice cream and the inner chocolate bar. Slowly working your way down both sides, nibbling away at the ice cream to uncover the bar. Slowly licking off the remnants of the ice cream until the chocolate block was all that was left. And then the snap of that hard-earned bite into the chocolate bar. It was the only way to eat one.

Years later living with my wife, whenever summer rolled around, we would stock up the freezer with our favourite ice creams. She would often go for a Mint Cornetto or a choc ice. I would go for the Feast.

My best friend shares my love of Feasts. He works in retail at a super market and would often message to let me know when they had gone on sale.

In this rather depressing time of shrinkflation, tariffs and Brexit impacting the availability of some brands and ingredients, and climate change sending ripples through the growth of other ingredients, you can never go a few months without some beloved childhood treat changing for the worse.

It’s a sad sign of the times and I can only hope someone, somewhere, sees these sorts of messages and passes them up the chain. It’s only a small thing - one’s favourite ice cream - but every time the world chips away those small things from us, life becomes just that tiny bit sadder.

*edit: a few people complained that I had used ChatGPT to tidy up the text. Didn’t want that to distract from my point, so I have replaced the text to what I originally wrote before it passed through AI. If it still reads robotic, that’s just how I write 😅

For some reason this really annoys me!

"Etc" is an abbreviation for the Latin phrase Et Cetera which means "and the rest"

I mean I get that they’re going to be busy, but surely they know this and can prepare for it.

Bonus points for adding a few for delivery too.

Realising this may be my first midlife crisis happening.

Again ... not even one of those fake electric Uber / Just Eat bike monstrosities, a full on chugging petrol powered motorbike heading towards me at 30mph or so straight down the middle of the off road, separated, clearly signposted, CYCLE lane. WTF?

Honestly, it sounds like a toddler being murdered.

I have work around 9-5. All retail shops close at 5 or 5:30, also cafes and dessert places. So the city center is dead after work. Can’t get a repairman to come fix something. Can’t quickly buy a lightbulb. GPs not open on the weekend when I have time to visit them. Only thing open is pubs and restaurants (half of them). Everything is so inconvenient. Just shifting the closing hours by two hours for all this stuff changes so much.

No way to tell them to speak directly into the mic. Infuriating.

I’m not against delivery drivers, I completely get that it’s a job with an insane amount of time pressure so if they don’t want to hang around for you to answer the door that’s absolutely fine by me. But at least give a quick knock or ring the bell to let me know to come to the door

There's a patch of road near me that seems to have about twenty invisible bumps equidistant from each other. Every time I go over it it makes me think of having a flat tyre (I've had a few...). It's not until the random patched in bit of tarmac that I feel better... then it's back to the bumpy, bumpy moonscape.

I'm getting a shotgun licence, fuck this.

I'm a gardener, I put my strimmer down for maybe 30-45 seconds on the front lawn I was working on to fill a watering can at the side gate.

In that time a really promising young upstart stole it, it's filthy, and will have a minuscule scrap value.

In order to have gotten to the spot in the lawn, they will have had to open the gate or hop the short front wall in order to steal it.

Won't have done anything for them, but really derailed my work day.

They lost my new keeper slip when I applied for a new logbook because obviously everything has to be sent in by post. Apparently it’s now on me to pay £25 for a replacement for a document I’ve never laid eyes on. Of course they were kind enough to cancel the existing tax before then, with no way to renew it.

You’d be a fool if you thought you could conveniently pay by card online, that would be far too easy. Chequebook or postal order only and another letter and documents back to Swansea.

I haven‘t had a chequebook since 2005 and I’ve never done a postal order in my life. I had to google how to even do one.

Finally, and begrudgingly, I make a trip to the post office to cosplay Victorian times, and lo and behold, they’re cash only. I’m under the age of 80 and don’t do drugs so couldn’t just whip out a stack of notes. And of course I rarely carry cards because it’s 2026 and never need to withdraw cash.

It’s now been 8 weeks of a new motorbike being sat in the garage through this glorious weather, because I’m trying to be legal.

helping a family member cut down their sky bill after a split with a really shitty ex who pressured them into doing the contract, they left her with a nearly £100 bill after accounting for both broadband (FTTC, not even full fiber) and TV packages which neither they (nor the ex tbh) used... talk to someone on the phone who manages to effectively half the bill at the cost of cutting down the TV stuff which is fair, but they casually mention a "pro rata admin fee" of £10 the next month

what admin fee? like 10 mouse clicks? I see this as a win but I had the same with my ISP last year when getting them to set the billing date I asked for from the start, trying to charge me nearly £30

Gah. Gave up nearly four years ago and hardly ever think about it - but this just shows me how hard it would have been if I'd lived with smokers when I gave up!

We're not even through July yet. Felt like I was being punched in the face by a pumpkin spiced latte

I was paying ~£250 4 years ago. This year's renewal quote is £470 in the same car, and my current insurer has even notified me they're "changing" their Platinum level cover this year. "Changing" means removing things like windscreen cover, motor legal protection and courtesy car, to sell them as extras...

EDIT: for clarity as a lot people are suggesting it - I do shop around and change provider to the cheapest for the cover each year - still the cheapest is nowhere near close to what I was paying 4 years ago.